According to our social media manager Tony Ham, several Edgewater residents are promoting the idea of converting the defunct Edgewater Medical Center at 5700 N Ashland Ave into a public park. They’ve taken their message to an online petitioning site, where they’ve collected a little more than half of the 300 desired “signatures” for their cause.
“There is no park in the proximity. West Edgewater, or as I hope it will be called EDGEWATER PARK, does not have a park within a mile of this site. This is not at all convenient for our residents,” the petition states. “A park will increase our property values by 5% minimum…The park is the sustainable and green thing to do. Our neighborhood suffers storm water damage every year. The foundation of the EMC site will make a terrific French Drain returning thousands of gallons of storm water back to the environment.”
This probably isn’t happening anytime soon — the site may still be tied up in a morass of litigation resulting from the hospital’s collapse, and I gather from skimming posts and comments at the Edgewater Community Buzz blog that some neighborhood residents anticipate (if not exactly support) new residential development at the site sometime in the future. I’m also not too sure whether online petitions have much sway among aldermen, although this push may be coupled with other efforts.
Anyone from the neighborhood care to share your thoughts on what should (or will) be done with the old hospital?
Lets hope that this decision isn’t in the hands of some sleezy Alderman.
It’s about time city residents get less say over development. There are plenty of parks nearby, and what is needed instead is residential development.
The last thing cash-strapped Chicago needs is another tax-income sucking park to satisfy a few NIMBY’s. Put a residential building there to generate tax income and customers for city businesses. Let the NIMBY’s move to Glenview if they want more parks.
Do these people even live in the area? Mellin Park is three blocks south on Ashland. Senn Park is a quarter mile away. The best park in the whole city- the lakefront Lincoln Park and beach is less than a mile away. Winnemac Park is about 1.2 miles away. And since they are so concerned with green space Rosehill Cemetery is two blocks away.
Excess demolition in pursuit of turning everything into Parks had a dreadful effect on the vitality of my home neighborhood, Hyde Park, which lost over half its population in just a couple decades because of how happy everyone was to tear down the neighborhood and replace it with park space. Of course, as “the urban politician” hints at, the result is that area businesses suffer and there is less vitality in what should be an urban neighborhood.
But hey, if Edgewater residents want to foster the decline of their own neighborhood, power to them, I guess.